Plan For Job-creating Tax Break Expected

A partial exemption from the corporate income tax would be offered to large companies who that move operations to Connecticut under legislation being prepared by the Weicker administration.

Joseph J. McGee, commissioner of economic development, said the tentative plan is to offer a tax cut of 25 percent for seven 7 to 10 years to companies that create 4,000 jobs.

There would be smaller exemptions for creating fewer jobs, he said, with the range probably starting at 500 or 1,000 jobs with a tax cut ranging from 6 percent to 10 percent.

McGee gave the legislature's finance, revenue and bonding committee a preview of the idea during a hearing Thursday, and said the finished plan should be ready as a proposed bill within a few days.

A major selling point of the plan, he said, is that the state would only lose revenue from reducing the tax if a company made a major investment in Connecticut, produced a large number of jobs and was making a profit that could be taxed.

In other words, there would only be a losscost if there were an economic gain that far outweighed that loss. cost.

"We think it's a very creative and very powerful incentive" to attract business to the state, McGee said.

Asked by a legislator if he also wanted to offer incentives to state companies that expand here, McGee said he did not.

McGee testified, even though his proposal was not ready, because the committee's hearing schedule included a bill to provide a complete five-year exemption from the corporate tax to any company that moves into Connecticut.

The state should not go that far, McGee said. "We see this as a very narrow focus on large employment generators," he said.

Also Thursday, the committee heard testimony from representatives of golf courses and country clubs who that want an exemption from the sales tax.

Eugene Williams, owner of the Lisbon Golf Course, said that he faces unfair competition from municipal courses that aren't subject to the sales tax, and that his season ticket holders are hit with two taxes -- a 10 percent dues tax and a 6 percent sales tax.

Although affluent country- club members would benefit from the

tax exemption, Williams and other golf -course owners said the main beneficiaries would be their customers, many of whom are low- to middle-income and elderly.

Sen. William A. DiBella, D-Hartford, a co-chairman of the committee whose love of golf is legendary at the Capitol, joked that he might have a "conflict of interest" on the issue.

"I belong to a few golf clubs," he admitted.

DiBella said he was unsure whether he would support the bill, which would cost the state $3 million a year in lost revenue. "I'm willing to listen," he said